


Once Upon A Time

by marysiak



Series: The Amethyst Saga [3]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-04-10
Updated: 1999-04-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 05:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8000905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marysiak/pseuds/marysiak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unfinished work on the origins of the Labyrinth and the Goblin King, just putting it in here for my own reference really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon A Time

   
**The Amethyst Saga: Once Upon A Time**  
**by Amethyst  1998-1999**  
  
**Chapter 1**  
   
   All was quiet, very quiet. Peaceful. She didn't feel especially like  
going outside, just staying in. Nor did she feel like watching TV or  
working on the computer after going to all the bother of getting Jareth  
to set them up for her. But the really strange thing was that she wasn't  
depressed. Despite not being sure what she wanted to do with herself she  
wasn't feeling empty. She wasn't feeling pointless. There was a glow    
inside her that before she had only felt rarely and now had become a    
permanant feeling. It never left her. She was happy.  
   
   Jareth was away settling a disagreement between the dwarves and the  
elves. Apparently this happened quite often. Although neither of the  
factions were entirely friendly with the Goblin King they relied on him    
to keep the peace between them. He would "only be away a couple of days"  
and "no you will not come too". This did not come as a big surprise.  
   
   She decided to go through to Jareth's study and dig through the books  
there to see if there was anything interesting. She liked Jareth's  
study. She liked sitting in the worn leather chair that he had sat in for  
so many years, running her fingers over the smooth wood of his desk.    
Smell of books and ink and leather and age and him. She loved the open    
fire and the heavy velvet curtains and the old books on the dark wooden  
bookshelves built into the walls. The old, faded, hand drawn map of the  
Labyrinth in it's heavy frame on the wall. She lifted it down carefully  
and laid it on the desk to look at it. The Castle Beyond the Goblin City  
was marked in the centre with the Labyrinth arrayed around it. Of course  
the map didn't show the Labyrinth in any detail, you couldn't, not at the    
rate it changed. Outside the Labyrinth the map showed an uninhabited  
region of scrub covering the low hills for a few miles. The hills where  
she had first arrived in the Labyrinth. She smiled at the thought and  
sat back, closing her eyes, to relish the memory for a few moments. Then  
she bent back over the map tracing further out as the hills became  
mountains. Deep forest was marked in the valleys and a comments such as,  
"Here be the friendly elves" and "Deep caves be here" and "Beware the  
savage beasts" and the occasional small town or village. There wasn't  
much marked outside the mountains but it was an old map. Just arrows  
pointing in various directions. "Ancient Forest" to the north west,  
"Desert Land" to the east, "Sea of Grass" to the south. It looked rather  
like something she herself might have made up only better drawn. And  
she would probably have coloured it in whereas this was just faded black  
ink on yellowed paper. She wondered how much more land had been mapped  
since this had been drawn. Where did Midkemia come into things for a  
start? Perhaps on a different continent. She put the map back up on it's  
hook and went to the bookcases, dragging her finger slowly across the  
old, leather spines as she read the titles. "Farming and the  
Fertilisation of Crops"  "The Diseases of Poultry"  "Methods of  
Irrigation". Thrilling stuff, she thought and tried a different shelf.  
  "On Shoring Tunnels and Preventing Accidents in The Mine"  "The Refining  
of Ores". Fascinating. There's got to be something interesting here. She  
ran her eyes over the shelves until she reached what appeared to be a    
section of historical books. She pulled one out,  
   
    "The Tale of The Great War as Seen Thru The Eyes of Eldan,  
                    Last King of The Labyrinth  
   
     by Renard, magician and historian, in the year 751."  
   
   What was the year now? She wandered over to Jareth's desk with the    
book and looked for a calendar of some sort. A clock on the wall    
displayed the year in a little box, 993, so this book was over two  
hundred years old. She sat down and opened it up, running her eyes down    
the contents page.  
   
                  "Contents as followes...  
   
    Chapter 1.  The birthe and early childhood of Eldan  
    Chapter 2.  The early exploits of Prince Eldan.  
    Chapter 3.  The coronation of King Olvan.  
    Chapter 4.  The Princess Iniara.  
    Chapter 5.  The brewing of the Great War.  
    Chapter 6.  The Death of Queen Iniara.  
    Chapter 7.  The Great War."  
   
   The contents went on but she wanted to know more about the Great War  
and the Princess Iniara so she flicked forward to chapter 4.  
   
                 "Chapter 4. The Princess Iniara.  
   
     The Princess Iniara was aged four and tenne summers when King Eldan  
first met withe her. She was the King's mothers sisters last daughter  
(see Shortened Family Tree of King Eldan at ende)."  
   
   Amethyst turned to the end to look at the beautifully drawn family  
tree that opened out there. Some of the dates had been pencilled in, the    
ones that came after the book was written.  
   
             "The Shortened Family Tree of King Eldan.  
   
                     King Lyndon = Queen Selwyn  
                      (452-593)  |  (432-559)  
                     ____________|____________________________________  
                    |            |             |                      |  
Queen Ryna = King Lyndon II   Jinita   King Tilver = Queen Raychen   Sor  
(511-615)  |  (506-598)      (508-519)   (553-680) |  (555-691)   (567-695)  
       ____|____________                   ________|__________  
      |                 |                 |        |          |  
     Anya = Darval    Queen Selwyn = King Olvan   Atara      Innis  
(548-710) | (559-705)  (562-692)   |  (603-717)  (597-718)  (672-818)  
   _______|__________           ___|______________________________  
  |       |          |         |             |         |          |  
 Cora  others  Queen Iniara = King Eldan    Lyndon   Selwyn     Eldara    
 (592-717)       (676-708)    (635-752)   (662-663)  (662-663)  (684-704)"  
   
   
   Amethyst puzzled over the family tree. From the looks of the life    
spans Jareth couldn't be the son of Iniara and Eldan, he was too young.  
Had Iniara and Eldan had any children? Surely not, the author would have  
put them in. Perhaps Eldan had remarried, but then why had that not been  
put in. Eldan had been one year off dying when the book had been written so  
unless the kid had been illigitemate surely it would have been put in. Who  
knew, after all it was only a shortened family tree and it was ancient. She'd  
ask Jareth. She looked over the family tree again shaking her head at the  
inbreeding. With a bit of luck it would turn out Jareth was from one of the  
"others" and she wouldn't have to worry about her children having two heads.  
   
   She turned back again, this time to chapter 5, and began reading.  
   
   
"Chapter 5 - The Brewing of the Great War  
   
     For latter generations I give thee history of the Great War, though it  
be writ in many other bookes I am sure. When King Lyndon thee Second was  
killed it did appear to be an accident. However it was widely suspected  
that the husband of his daughter Anya, who was riding with him that day,  
carried some responsibility for thee deed in hopes that he would inherit,  
Anya being thee eldest born of Lyndon who had no sons. But Anya was passed  
over as too young and there was much prejudice as few women had ever ruled  
thee Labyrinth. Thee succession passed to Tilver, next eldest living of Old  
King Lyndon thee First. Anya didst take much offense at this and further  
yet when her younger sister Selwyn ascended to Queen after wedding King  
Tilver's eldest son, Olvan. This bad blood between Anya thee line of King  
Tilver led to thee events which sparked thee Great War..."  
   
\-------------------  
   
Summer 593 - The coronation of King Lyndon II  
   
    "What?" smiled the old man vacantly. "What did he say Silly?"  
    "What?" asked Lady Selwyn absently.  
    Sor sniggered in the background at his aged parents only to recieve    
a cuff around the head from his eldest brother, Lyndon.  
    "Try and act like an adult, Sor."  
    "But I'm not an adult, Lentil."  
    "Sor!" warned his other brother, Tilver, throwing a cushion at him.  
    "My apologies, King Lentil," acknowledged Sor with a sweeping bow.    
"And my Lady Rhino."  
    Lyndon sighed, "This may seem like a big joke to you, Sor. But now    
father has reached his final age the populace has to look to me to lead    
them. They have to respect me... and they have to see you respect me."  
    "Don't be such a big fat bore, Lentil."  
    "Right, that's it!" Lyndon started to head for Sor with purpose    
written across his face, but Tilver intercepted him.  
    "Lyndon calm down, go and get ready."    
   
    Sor breathed a sigh of relief, his brother Lyndon was a harsh    
taskmaster and overly fond of corporal punishment for misbehaviour. Not    
that you'd know it from the way he had spoiled Sor's nieces, Anya and    
Selwyn. Though he'd heard Anya's new husband boast that he took her over    
his knee when she talked back to him. But he doubted that, if anything it    
was probably the other way around. Darval was a weasel who didn't deserve    
someone as beautiful as Anya. Sor thanked the God's that soon he'd reach    
his majority and that with Anya's new daughter, Cora, he was no longer the    
youngest in the family. He sloped off out before he got himself into any    
more trouble.  
   
    In a side room away from all the family gossip Tilver was helping    
his brother Lyndon into his official robes. Lyndon had become strangely    
subdued after his argument with Sor.  
    "What's on your mind? The press of responsibility?"  
    "What?" he looked startled. "Oh... no. I was just thinking."  
    Tilver cocked an eyebrow. "Very important ability in a king."  
    Lyndon managed to crack a smile and explained. "I was thinking    
about Jinita."  
    "Oh." Tilver had never known Jinita, his elder sister who had died  
34 years before he was born. She had been only 11.  
    "I was such an ass in those days, just like Sor only worse maybe.    
She meant the world to me, my little sister. But you know the last thing I    
said to her was to call her the Ginger Princess. Sounds stupid but she    
hated that, it was the worst thing in the world to her. She would have    
loved this you know, she loved to dress up and play Princess."  
    Tilver stayed silent. Lyndon had been melancholy ever since his    
wife Ryna had miscarried their first boy child two years ago, the child    
had been only 3 months before his due date and there had been a state    
service for his tiny body. Laid to rest in the royal graveyard on the    
hills to the west of the Labyrinth.  
    "Well," said Lyndon, shrugging off the mood. "Better go find Rye,    
nearly time to go."  
   
    The ceremony was just that, purely ceremonial. The powers due the    
King of the Labyrinth had passed to Lyndon by an act of will at the moment    
his father had succumbed to age. The ceremony was more to present the new    
King to the people and for him to show his new powers. All the royal family    
had a smattering of it, but the strength of the crystal power lay in the    
ruler. When it passed on it was like a magnifying glass, expanding greatly    
the powers that were already present. Thus some rulers held more power than    
others. Lyndon the First had been a powerful man, his son Lyndon the II    
would never have his talent, but he was well liked all the same.  
    The people of the Labyrinth crowded the hall and the courtyards    
outside as the royal family made their way in order of succession to sit    
before the minor nobility of the land. First Sor, looking striking in his    
royal blue tunic and white hose but still childish in the way he revelled    
in the attention, seating himself with far more dignity and aplomb than    
was necessary for the occasion. But still he showed some of the dark good    
looks of his elder brothers, though he would always suffer under their    
shadow in that area, as well as many others. He took after his mother,    
who had been a voluptuous red head in her youth. He was followed by Prince  
Tilver and his wife the Princess Raychen who escorted the elderly ex-King    
Lyndon and his wife Selwyn. This would be the last official gathering they  
would attend before they left the city to dwell in the Labyrinth. It was    
not necessary, many families kept their elderly members with them, but it    
was traditional and King Lyndon had been most insistent on his leaving even    
now with most of his faculties lost. He had been a very strong willed man.  
    Prince Tilver was the tallest and slimmest of the three boys, or    
rather men, and resembled his mother the least. It was he that had    
inherited the greatest extent of his fathers power and even without the    
passing on of the crystal power he was a passably strong magician and most    
importantly comfortable with his power. Unlike his elder brother who had    
always been leery of it, perhaps in the awareness that he had no choice    
but to accept it's full force one day. Tilver's wife, Raychen, was a tall    
and striking woman with deep brown hair and nearly black eyes. She was    
very like her husband in demeanour but more serious in nature.  
    The newly appointed King's children followed his siblings. First    
the Princess Selwyn, only just past her majority. She had red hair like her    
namesake and was a cheery uncomplicated girl. Pretty but not beautiful,    
unlike her sister, Princess Anya, who followed with her husband Darval.    
Their baby Cora carried by a nursemaid who walked inconspicuously behind    
them. Anya took after her mother, Ryna, in looks, a cool blonde with milk    
white skin and ice blue eyes. Dangerously beautiful and talk was she had    
married Darval to be sure she would have a husband she could control so    
that when she inherited he would not steal any of her glory. Dangerous talk.  
    Finally all were seated and fanfares silenced any remaining chatter.  
Above the crowd, despite the fact they were indoors, clouds gathered. The    
people gazed silently upward at the glittering mass of grey, purple folds    
that swathed the ceiling and waited to see what would happen. The cloud    
broke into pieces which began to spin, forming themselves into globes in    
an airy replication of the cosmic forces. The globes compressed upon    
themselves until the air danced with spinning crystal balls full of light    
which began to shape complex patterns around one another. Then with a clear    
high C they burst and scattered the crowd with confetti and glitter amd    
sweets which melted away into air in the mouth. The King and Queen of the    
Labyrinth appeared before their subjects applause.  
    *A little show of lights and the crowd goes wild,* thought Tilver    
cynically. *I could almost have done that myself, without the crystal    
power.* Then he shook himself mentally and chastised himself for such    
thoughts. Beside him old King Lyndon and Queen Selwyn ooed and aahed and    
giggled like children at the display.  
    King Lyndon II knelt before the crowd and Queen Ryna placed the    
crown on his head, silver with an upturned horned gold emblum on the front  
embedded with a crystal. The symbol of the ruler of the Labyrinth. Then    
they paraded together down the centre of the hall, followed by the rest of    
the royal family, to wave to the crowds outside.  
   
\--------------  
   
    Amethyst was disturbed by a sound at the door. Confused she looked    
up and stared, uncomprehensive a moment, before remembering and saying,    
"Yes?" somewhat shakily.  
    The door opened and a vaguely butlerish goblin appeared. It    
hehmed, "Thee Goblin King, Lord Jareth, approacheth!" it announced    
imperiously. It paused waiting for something and she continued to stare at    
it blankly. "Eh... that means he's coming back now." it added helpfully.    
"You know from the talks." She frowned in confusion and looked down at the    
book in her hands. "Right," it said. "I'll be off then." And left.  
    She lifted the book carefully and set it on the desk, pulling her    
hands away as soon as it was down. Then she contemplated it from her newly    
established distance. What she had seen had been... real? But not real.  
Like a dream in which she was not actually a participant. She would have to  
ask Jareth what it meant.  
   
   
\-----------  
**Chapter 2 (written Apr 1999)**  
   
598 -    
   
    Anya was tense as she sat in the family room of the royal castle.  
Tilver watched her, his suspicion aroused by her behaviour and a strange  
sixth sense that prickled at him. Raychen swept in with an air of annoyance    
and exhaustion and dropped their first child, Atara, into his lap. The    
baby immediately began to chew on his collar.  
   
    "She's teething again. I'm going to bed."  
   
    Tilver swept the child up as six year old Cora finally detached    
herself from her mothers skirts and came to ooh at the baby. Anya stood  
staring out the window, her fingers twitching. What was she waiting for?  
   
    Then it happened.  
   
    In a flash the magnifying glass swung and illuminated Tilver. He  
shot to his feet with a cry, leaving Atara to tumble to the ground. For a  
moment he was transfixed, the newfound power blinding him, then reality  
rushing in. As he cried out, "Lyndon!", he heard Anya scream in what sounded  
like pure rage.  
   
    "No! It's not fair!"  
   
    Then the moment dropped into chaos as children began to cry and  
the court descended into panic.  
   
    A few hours later Sor and Darval returned on foot. There was no    
body, they said.


End file.
